Perth A-League midfielder Neil Kilkenny has bemoaned a lack of "respect" from coach Warren Joyce in his departure from Melbourne City and criticised his "old-school" style of play.
Kilkenny was City's player of the year last season, as voted by teammates and supporters - but he played just 70 minutes of football after Joyce's arrival and was released last month.
To this day, he says it was never explained to him why he was so suddenly frozen out of the first-team picture.
"He never spoke to me about it. It's one of them things," a fiery Kilkenny told reporters ahead of his first showdown with his former club on Saturday at NIB Stadium.
"I don't think it was performance-based because I didn't really play. It's obviously personal.
"What can I do? I can only go and play as well as I can again and, hopefully, I can do that."
Kilkenny said he was able to get on "swimmingly" with every single person at City - from his fellow players and the kit man to the CEO and football director - except for Joyce.
"As a team, they were brilliant, supportive - they even said to me they didn't understand what was going on; why I wasn't playing; why I wasn't given the opportunity," he said.
"All the backroom staff are fantastic. All the people above the manager were brilliant as well to me.
"Unfortunately, a bit of respect would have been nice from the man at the top."
In a further shot at Joyce, Kilkenny said he had moved Melbourne City away from the attacking, possession-based style of play the City Football Group wanted all of their clubs to abide by.
Joyce has taken a heavily defensive approach, which has yielded results as City are on course for their best finish to an A-League season.
Kilkenny said it would only be vindicated if they won silverware.
"Obviously, we had the City way last year and the way the whole group wanted to play ... this manager's come in and gone back to a bit of the old-school English way," he said.
"Whether he can win something, time will tell. People can make their own mind up to see if he's a success.
"If he doesn't win a trophy, that says a lot."
Perth sit eighth on the ladder, seven points outside the finals positions with seven matches to go.
Australian Associated Press
